Customise

Info

News for September 2015

Moving from Apple iPhone to Android

Last night when I plugged my iPhone to its charger, its battery was as flat as they’d ever go. There was no telltale sign that it was connected, no little vibration or flashing icon to tell me it was getting juice from the lightning cable. I thought perhaps the phone would turn on after a few minutes so I left it plugged in thinking it would be back to 100% battery power in the morning.

Unfortunately as Apple charging cables go, this one was no exception. It had reached the end of its tether and left me with a dead weight to carry to work to charge. 19 months in to a 24 month contract, I will be buying my next lightning cable, the 5th in total (2 non-certified and 3 “certified” lightning cables). At AUD$29, it’s on the steep side for my liking, regardless of the chip inside it or the fact that you can’t plug it in incorrectly. The feeling of being ripped off again, over something so little, make my decision to move away from the iPhone much easier. Like many people who’ve upgraded from one iPhone to the next, the convenience of being able to move apps, settings, emails and contacts as well as having the Apple-cool factor is far outweighed by that gut feeling you get when you know someone it’s taking you for a ride and you let it because you’re too nice to stop it from happening.

Instagram Open for Business

Everyone who use Instagram would by now have noticed sponsored ads on their feeds. These are even more accessible to advertisers after Insta opened themselves to the Facebook advertising platform. In the latest post on the Instagram for Business Blog, there are more ad formats, more capabilities (video ads anyone?) while making it easier for businesses to reach their target audience. I’m all for generating ad revenue especially from a free app but when are they going to come up with an ad-free, paid/premium version?

Instagram, No longer Square

I’ve been away from posting on Instagram lately but recently noticed posts that were in rectangular format. This isn’t so evident with landscape pictures because they’ve been around since people realized you can upload the images with white top & bottom borders.

The change is more obvious for portrait formats because pictures now appear longer and don’t have the white space/borders on the left & right sides. I imagined Instagram purists around the world in uproar, removing the app from their smartphones in defiance of the change. But then I noticed the other new addition that lets you have multiple pictures using the Layout app, that does away with third-party apps like picframe. This probably balances out any negative response from users and probably get extra brownie points as well.